Petaluma, Calif. – Today President Barack Obama rolled out his blueprint for deficit reduction, during which he highlighted a plan to implement higher taxes on “the wealthy.” The American Small Business League (ASBL) is concerned that President Obama’s reference to the wealthy, meaning wage earners over $250,000 a year, is actually a reference to a large percentage of America’s 27 million small businesses.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, small businesses are responsible for over half of the private sector workforce, 50 percent the gross domestic product, 90 percent of exports and innovations, and 90 percent of net new jobs. 98 percent of all U.S. firms have less than 100 employees. Small businesses drive America’s job creation, and growth. Despite the clear negative implications of increasing taxes on the nation’s chief job creators, under President Obama’s new plan, small businesses will pay higher federal taxes.

“The Obama Administration gave less than three percent of stimulus funds to the small businesses that create over 90 percent of net new jobs, and now he is going to raise their taxes. That does not sound like much of a recovery plan to me,” ASBL President Lloyd Chapman said.

In addition to the serious economic implications of increasing the tax burden of America’s chief job creators, President Obama’s plan also fails to address billions of dollars in fraud and abuse in federal small business contracting programs.

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Since 2003, a series of federal investigations have found Fortune 500 firms and other corporate giants are the actual recipients of most federal small business contracts. In February of 2008, President Barack Obama promised to end the abuse. Despite, thousands of business closures and countless lost jobs, the Obama Administration has failed to honor its promise, and end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants. (http://www.asbl.com/documentlibrary.html, http://www.asbl.com/documents/20081007_Obama_Promise_Website.pdf)

The most recent information released by the Obama Administration shows large recipients of small business contracts such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Dell Computer, Xerox, SAIC, General Dynamics, Bechtel and John Deere. Moreover, federal data indicates that corporate giants may be receiving as much as $200 billion a year in federal small business contracts. (www.asbl.com/documents/ASBL_2009_dataanalysis.pdf)

“It is infuriating to listen to President Obama talk about shared prosperity and responsibility when you realize that every business hour of his administration has meant the continued diversion of up to $100 million in small business contracts to corporate giants,” Chapman said. “Small businesses need to be this administration’s priority.”